The land of her dreams is everything Irina Melnic hoped it would
be, but with some big surprises.

"The people here are so different," said Melnic, a 17-year-old
student from the smallish town of Calarasi, in the heart of
Moldova. "People come from so many different countries. I had an
idea it would be like this, but it still surprises me."

That's the way international student exchanges are supposed to
work, said Jeff Buckley, state coordinator of 4-H international
and citizenship programs.

Melnic is in Georgia through the Future Leaders Exchange, a
program through which high school students in former Soviet
states spend a school year in the United States. She's a
sophomore at Greenbrier High School near Evans, Ga.

'Biggest dream'

"My biggest dream since the second grade was to come to America,"
Melnic said, who calls her host parents, Bill and Carol Jackson
of Evans, "wonderful."

Her favorite Georgia place: Six Flags Over Georgia. Her favorite
activity: caving. Her biggest surprises:

Volunteerism and community service. "In Moldova," she said,
"people tend to get money for everything they do."

School is easier but more interesting, with more group
activities and projects and teachers more focused on motivating
students.

There is a minimum alcohol drinking age, so drinking is a
bigger deal to kids here than in Moldova, which has no drinking
age.

Four exchange programs

FLEX is one of four exchange programs through Georgia 4-H,
Buckley said. The other three are all through the Labo Party, a
youth development group similar to 4-H in Japan.

The Labo programs include both inbound and outbound one-month
summer visits, he said. A third program brings a Japanese student
to Georgia for a year.

Host families for exchange programs must sign up by May 1. Those
who want to host for a month must have children between 10 and 20
years old. Those who want to host either a FLEX or Labo student
for a whole year, however, don't have to have children.

Kayla Perry, a Madison County High School freshman, has been in
all three Labo programs. Her family hosted a girl, Misato
Horiuchi, for a month in 2003, then hosted a boy, Jun Katayama,
for the 2003-04 school year.

Parents, too

"It was a wonderful experience for us," said Donna Perry, Kayla's
mom. "We learned so much about Japanese culture. And they learned
a lot about our culture. Misato was from Tokyo, and we live on a
farm. She just loved going trail riding."

Last summer, Perry traveled to Japan for a month. "I never even
thought about going to Japan until Misato started talking about
it," she said. "Going there was pretty scary. But after the first
few days with my host family, I started to relax."

Before it was over, she bubbled with enthusiasm. "I had a blast,"
she said. "My host family showed me so many things. They were
wonderful."

At 6 feet tall with blonde hair, the 15-year-old Georgian
attracted attention. "Everybody there was Asian," she said. "Even
their immigrants were from Asian countries, so I really stood
out."

'Hello!'

That turned out to be a good thing. "Everybody speaks some
English there," she said, "and they all wanted to say the English
words they knew to me. They were very friendly."

Her biggest surprise was her host dad's taking her to "meet his
grandmother." The revered grandmother's ashes were at a shrine,
where her host family kept incense burning and brought rice each
morning and tea each evening.

"They knew I was a Christian and respected that," Perry said.
"But they introduced me to their religion, too, and I respected
that. We all understood each other."

To learn more about international exchange programs through
Georgia 4-H, contact Buckley at (706) 542-8756 or
jbuckley@uga.edu. Or go to www.georgia4hinternational.org
and click on "Exchange Programs."

(Dan Rahn is a news editor with the University of Georgia
College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)

(Dan Rahn is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)